Buddies all set to tackle drug menace

Naina Mishra

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, August 12

The “Buddy Project” is set to be launched during the state-level Independence Day function in Ludhiana.

As many as 100 buddy groups with 500 students and teachers will participate in the Independence Day celebrations and be made part of the interaction with the Chief Minister.

The Special Task Force (STF), Punjab, has designed the programme with inputs from experts in the field of education. The programme aims at preventing drug abuse among the younger generation by developing a system of self-monitoring and support.

This will be operational in all educational institutes. Every student who is in Class VI or above will be called a buddy. Each buddy group will consist of five students and every class will be allotted to a teacher, who will be called a ‘senior buddy’. The buddy group will have a healthy mix of gender, caste, religion and economic status. The academically weak and relatively stronger students will be grouped together. The nodal buddy will be appointed by the head of the institute.

Students will be able to discuss family problems, drug addiction with their senior buddy or within the group. The matter will be brought to the notice of the teacher and principal and sorted discreetly.

Students will be educated to know the ill-effects of drugs, how to say no to drugs, how to recognise signs of drugs and what to do if such signs are noticed. Parents will also form an important part of the project with the help of ‘upward filtering’, wherein parents will be made aware of issues related to drugs from their child.

School heads hailed the initiative and were optimist about the project. Taskeen Akhtar, Principal of Government Senior Secondary School, said: “It is a great initiative by the Punjab Government. Though we already had groups in classes, wherein students shared their problems. Now that the instructions are released formally, it will reap benefits in the long run.”